Tales of the Time Lords

The comic strip pages of Doctor Who Magazine and its predecessors have been exploring an alternative Time Lord continuity since 1979.

The tale of The Stolen TARDIS began in Doctor Who Weekly issue 9.

The arrival of Marvel UK’s Doctor Who Weekly in October 1979 saw a greater use of elements from the television series in strips aimed at a more dedicated audience. The Daleks and the Sontarans quickly appeared in the new title’s lead strip, but most of the show’s classic elements were explored in back-up strips produced by a fresh generation of writing and artistic talent.

The first Time Lord story appeared in issue nine of Doctor Who Weekly. The Stolen TARDIS, subtitled A Tale of the Time Lords, was drawn by 16-year-old Steve Dillon and scripted by Steve Moore, who had previously worked for Weekly editor Dez Skinn on the House of Hammer comic magazine.

Sillarc sets off with criminal intent in the first part of The Stolen TARDIS.

Hotheaded young Gallifreyan Plutar fails to graduate from the Time Lord Academy for holding beliefs in interfering with other worlds to fight evil. He is fixing a faulty TARDIS when lizard alien Sillarc brings his space circus to Gallifrey. While the locals are distracted, Sillarc steals this TARDIS – with Plutar still on board.

Sillarc is apprehended in the final part of The Stolen TARDIS. The story was written by Steve Moore and illustrated by Steve Dillon.

We see little of Gallifrey, bar a brickwork (basement?) workshop and one glimpse of a distant skyline of skyscrapers and spires. The costumes are of Dillon’s invention, with no visuals sourced from recent TV adventures such as The Invasion of Time (1978). The undisguised TARDIS features a door sliding outward on one end, possibly a dim misremembering of the central doors seen in TARDISes in The War Games (1969).

About Doctor Who Magazine

The Doctor’s own people, and his home planet, were introduced in 1969 as a major chapter in the series’ history came to an end. Five decades later, the Time Lords and their devastating war with the Daleks are still essential parts of Doctor Who’s mythology. This special publication analyses every story set on Gallifrey, reveals previously unseen images from the making of the episodes and interviews key players in the Time Lords’ fascinating story.